Upgrading to A Divergent Life

Daily Archives: October 1, 2011

Alright the kids and I have been all over town and crossing to other states even! Well the next state is only a few minutes away really, but we did drive about half an hour away. We went to a Shrimp Fest. Being a person who dislikes any sort of seafood, fishy, crustacean, tentacle whatever types of food, the only reason I went was because my mom had some of her art displayed at a booth with the gallery she is with. Not really the only reason, I guess. I did want to venture out with the kids and do something that we have not done before. A mini-festival seemed appropriate. We had a great time. We walked around, took pictures of the river, touched a lamppost (touching lampposts is a must), ate some supernatural colored Italian ices, got barked at by a mean dog, and then wandered about for a while.

My mom and I shared a funnel cake.

I love funnel cakes! LOVE! Not kidding! Obsessed with funnel cake. However, they always make me sick so I cannot eat them. I did today though because my mom and I were “living on the wild side”. My mom’s words pertaining to funnel cake. HA! I haven’t had a funnel cake in years. I have made them at home, gluten-free even, but they are not the same as when you eat the warm, crispy, fluffy, fried goodness at a festival. I saw people eating shrimp and almost gagged. That wasn’t fun. The kids did get a bit overloaded and we had plans to go to a thrift store to find Halloween costumes. Yes, I said that. Eating my words, am I. Read this post and you will know why.

I have a history of being quite anal about certain things and holidays is one of them.

However, I am open to change and fun. I was never a fan of the candy part of Halloween, but I admit that I have always been drawn to Halloweenish types of things throughout the year. Since I had my room decorated in gargoyles, bats, black cats, skeleton head candle holders, dragons and pretty much anything black and white or heavy metal posters growing up and into my young adult life, I would say I am kind of a fan. I was addicted to very bad scary movies while a teenager as well. I am pretty sure that was triggered by me watching “The Shining” when I was a child and the fact that my aunts who were watching me watched them all the time. Oh, and my slight obsession with Stephen King for a quite a while. I am mostly sure that this all started with my reading and obsession with Edgar Allen Poe when I was like 9 years old.

I am totally sidetracked.

We are going to the zoo, spook-a-zoo or something this year and the kids are dressing up. I used to dress-up, my favorites were when I was Marylin Monroe and Mia Wallace (Pulp Fiction). Oh and Pioneer Barbie. I was an adult then, my favorites as a child were Wonder Woman and Cyndi Lauper. I digress. The kids picked out what they wanted to be last month. Ariel a dragon, Joshua as Anakin Skywalker, and Daniel as Obi-Wan. I have been looking for costumes and they are SO expensive. My mom and I decided to try the thrift store and to our surprise we found a full on Dragon costume for $3.99! Yes! Then, I found other items for the boys to piece together their costumes. SWEET! We are all pretty excited. They will not leave me alone though about my costume. Joshua wants me to be Padmé Amidala in the all white outfit.

He is actually insisting on it, I am not sure how to get out of that.

Ariel was super excited and now says that now she can: “Be a dragon everyday for real!” She wants to wear it every where. We’ll see how that goes. They are currently wearing their costumes and pretending that they are in Star Wars, Joshua and Daniel are fighting the creature (Ariel). Joshua’s lightsaber sound effects are spot on. As for the rest of the sweetness I want to share, we have been to stores and the beach this week as well. We had a moment at the store where it was a bit much and I forgot Daniel’s Rice milk. When we got home he insisted that we go and get it and he even started crying, that is new. He stopped as soon as we started to head out, but he was very upset about it and he had not responded like that before.

I believe it was because he really wanted rice cereal, banana, and milk.

When we got home he requested that and was a happy camper after he ate it. We went to the beach yesterday and had a wonderful time. We watched dragon flies, played in the water, and the sand. After that we went home and I finished the mounds of laundry that had taken over the house. I forgot the most eventful thing, Daniel had a lizard in his bed. Before bed the other evening I was putting the boys to bed and as I put Daniel’s last blanket on (we all have several blankets, the kids have about 4 or 5 and I have two heavy ones) this lizard came flying out. He ran all over the room, kids were screaming, I was laughing, and the cat was not doing his job.

I caught the lizard in a container.

I tried to scoop him up, but he leaped out as I tried to because the kids all screamed and giggled. I chased the lizard and he ended up under Daniel’s mattress I then, lifted the mattress and he escaped into a finger puppet. His tail was hanging out and I believe he was pretending to be dead. I proceeded to take him outside and set him free. The problem now is that Daniel does not believe that I got all of the lizards out of his room. I have to take him around the room, shake the blankets, and bounce the beds. Still he is not sure so he has been in my bed every night since the lizard incident. He normally ends up there anyway, but not until 1 am. Now he is starting off in my bed and taking the whole thing!

Overall I am very excited about all the adventures we have been having.

I am very happy about me not being ridden with anxiety and the kids as well. This is a big change for them to not have David here. I am not sure if the meltdowns will come when he gets home or not, but I think it is helping them tremendously to see him on Skype and be able to talk to him. School is not going as well as I would like, but I know that we will more than make up for it in the next couple weeks. They usually catch up in a day anyway if I pick the right day when everyone is “feeling” it. The kids have done amazing at telling me when they are getting overloaded and needing to leave or go home. This has made things so much easier. Instead of meltdowns or shutdowns they have told me. I cannot tell you how wonderful that is, it has been just so much fun to spend with them out and about. We are resting tomorrow as to not get too overstimulated.